More and more firms dealing with traditional finance are going in for cryptocurrencies. Now it’s time for Fidelity Investments to expand its activities.
Today it is quite a normal activity for traditional finance and investment companies to enter the world of cryptocurrencies offering their clients new blockchain-based and crypto-related solutions and tools. Recently, it has been revealed that one more well-known large asset management firms is planning to expand its offerings. We are speaking about Fidelity Investments.
The company’s CEO Abigail Johnson has informed that their team is actively working on the development of a number of cryptocurrency and blockchain based products and offerings which are said to be launched already this year. Nevertheless, speaking at Boston Fintech Week, Johnson haven’t disclosed any further details regarding exact kinds of projects that the company is working on.
Commenting their plans to enter the cryptocurrency space, she said:
“We’ve got a few things underway, a few things that are partially done but also kind of on the shelf because it’s not really the right time. We hope to have some things to announce by the end of the year.”
Without any doubts the information about the company’s plans is very positive news for the crypto community. The market is still looking forward to welcoming large institutional investors but a number of firms have only expressed their desire to enter the market and then have left their plans aside. Fidelity is one of the few large companies that seems to be serious about their intentions.
Some months ago, there were rumors that the firm was going to launch its crypto exchange and hire a specialist to manage a new cryptocurrency fund. Nevertheless, the company hasn’t confirmed this information and only disclosed its plans to offer some new products soon.
But these initiatives can’t be considered to be just the first step of Fidelity Investments towards blockchain and cryptocurrencies. In 2015, the company’s independent public charity organization called Fidelity Charitable offered philanthropists a possibility to make their donations using Bitcoin.
In 2017, Fidelity Charitable received donations equal to $69 million that were made in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This amount is approximately 10 times bigger than the sum received in cryptos a year before.
According to the company’s CEO, their main aim is to offer products that will meet the requirements of the market. This principle is much more important for them then just exploring of crypto and blockchain technology itself. She said:
“What we started with was building a long list of use cases for either Bitcoin, Ethereum, other cryptocurrencies, or potentially just raw blockchain technology. Most of them have been scrapped by now or at least put on the shelf. The things that actually survived were not the things I think necessarily we expected. We were trying to listen to the marketplace and anticipate what would make sense.”
Though the crypto market is actively growing and developing with digital assets moving towards mass adoption, Johnson still believes that financial services will stay alive being of high demand in the future.
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